At least two tenants are circling a block of office floors at the Midtown tower 399 Park Avenue several sources have revealed to The Commercial Observer.
Epoch Investment Partners, an investment management firm, is considering two floors, about 50,000 square feet at the 1.75-million-square-foot office tower, which is owned by the large REIT Boston Properties (BXP).
Epoch is currently located at 640 Fifth Avenue, a roughly 320,000-square-foot building that is owned by the rival REIT Vornado. A source familiar with Epoch who didn’t want to speak on record because the company is publicly owned and the person was not cleared to give public disclosures said that it is expanding and has a lease that is rolling in 640 Fifth Avenue in 2015.
It isn’t yet clear however if the company intends to grow at 399 Park Avenue and retain its space at 640 Fifth Avenue or if it will consolidate eventually in the new location if it does the deal. The firm has been announcing steady increases in the amount of funds under its management in recent years.
The Jordan Companies, a private equity firm in the General Motors Building, is also in talks to relocate to 399 Park Avenue. The company, according to sources, is considering a single floor at the property.
399 Park Avenue has six vacant floors, 27 through 32, each about 24,000 square feet in size. The building, which serves as the world headquarters for Citibank, is known as a prestigious office address along Park Avenue and charges rents above $100 per square foot. It’s not clear which floors Epoch and Jordan were in talks to take amid the stack.
Another office tenant, whose identity The CO could not identify by press time, is also said to be circling the availability, for two more floors, meaning that Boston Properties could soon have commitments for the bulk of the building’s empty space.
The prospective deals come only a few weeks after Boston Properties negotiated to have Citibank renew its nearly 500,000-square-foot lease at 601 Lexington Avenue, a skyscraper it owns across the street from 399 Park Avenue – a transaction that significantly reduced that building’s vacancy exposure.
Executives at Boston Properties could not be reached for comment.
A CBRE leasing team represents Boston Properties at 399 Park Avenue. No executives at the company could be reached.
